YOUR CART

Thank you to all that sent in blankets to help support one of our student's Girl Scout Groups. The blankets were given to children in the hospital over Christmas! The students were overjoyed by how many we were able to give.

In Math, we just completed our study of multiplication and division. Students are working towards memorizing their times tables. You may be curious as to why your child needs to memorize the times tables? Just like learning to walk before you can run, learning multiplication and memorizing the times tables are building blocks for other math topics taught in school – higher learning such as division, long multiplication, fractions and algebra. Students who have not memorized the times tables will find these levels of math much more difficult than they need to be. There is no time to pull out a calculator or to take 20 seconds to work out a math strategy before coming up with the answer. Students who have not mastered their tables will very often fall behind in math (and other subjects that use math) and begin to loose confidence. All because they did not memorize the times tables! Memorizing can be facilitated by concentrating, rehearsal and memorization techniques. Remember to focus your limited time on the facts that need to be learned. By removing the facts they already know and by learning the reciprocal facts together (i.e., 6x7 and 7x6), there are surprisingly few left to memorize. Review all facts occasionally to make sure they have been retained in long-term memory. Music, stories and visual associations can help with retention.

In Reading, we have been working in small groups based on our reading and word work individual needs. We have participated in novel studies and have explored main idea, supporting details, internal and external characteristics, and plot. We have just started exploring the different text structures authors use to write. We just finished up learning about descriptive writing which includes writing on a topic, providing details to support the topic, and using adjectives and adverbs to describe or "spice up" our writing. We also identified different texts with this text structure. We are becoming experts with finding evidence in text and working so hard to improve our reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension! We are learning to LOVE reading!

In Writing, we have focused on opinion writing! We learned how to state our opinion and how to provide reasons and examples to support our opinions. We used the OREO graphic organizer to help organize our thoughts with multiple topics. We wrote our first drafts, peer edited our writings, and published our final copies to tell what the BEST part of our holiday break was! We have enjoyed learning how to be persuasive as we try to persuade our readers to agree with our opinions!

The Science Unit for the second quarter is Earth and Space. We started our Unit by talking a little bit about the History of Inventions and Technology in general, from 17,000 B.C. with the birth of pottery to the invention of of microprocessor in 1970. We then focused our discovery on our Blue Planet, its four layers and the three category of rocks, their cycle and their properties. Finally, this led us to talk about our planet seismic activity, the tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanoes and the Ring of Fire.

Hands On Social Studies!!! Camp Flintlock~ Students traveled back in time to the 18th century when our nation was born. They learned about early American history, from the Revolutionary War to the everyday Colonial world. They experienced living like George Washington, Molly Pitcher, and Daniel Boone did in the 1700s. All of the activities were designed to promote a historical perspective while building character and having fun.Camp Flintlock Activity Stations were:Indian Necklace Making: Students made an authentic style necklace using glass beads and hair pipe beads made from buffalo horn and buffalo bones.Quill & Ink Writing: Students used a turkey feather quill & bottled ink and learned to write like Thomas Jefferson. This is one of our most popular stations.Indian War Paint & Story: Students listened to the story of James Smith who was captured and adopted by Indians. Then they tried on some Indian War Paint for themselves.Colonial Games: Students had fun playing period games such as: Cup & Ball, Bilbo, Graces, Nine Pins, Pickup Sticks, Hoop Racing, and Tug-of-War.Knot Tying: Students learned some basic knots such as: the square knot, the granny knot, the bowline knot, and others.Tomahawk Throw: Students learned to throw an Indian style tomahawk at a wooden target.Colonial Dress Up: Students dress up involved trying on reproductions of 18th Century clothing and the opportunity to get their picture taken.Colonial Store: The store had Authentic Period reproductions for sale. Some of the items solder were arrowheads, paper fans, and flutes.​

Check out our Colonial Day photos...

Students loved having their families come and enjoy our Holiday Lunch.

We explored rocks and all their properties to kick off our study of the Earth.

We held an election for Class Representatives! Each student created a poster to persuade voters to vote for them. Here are our winners...

Below are photos from our field trip to the Santa Elena Museum. They taught us all about what life was like in Beaufort during the Revolutionary War.

Click on the videos below to see us learning Antebellum dances and songs from the war. Students had such a great time!

A lot of Riverview Students were in the USCB Production of Shrek. We loved getting to see them perform and showing our support.